Trotting Horse

Entry

Sculptures of horses have been a separate and important genre within bronze sculpture since the sixteenth century. They trace their origins to a few famous classical prototypes, among them the four monumental bronze horses on the Basilica di San Marco in Venice and the bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome.² This gilt bronze trotting horse does not, however, stem directly from a classical example of this kind – it is, rather, a derivative of the large equestrian statues that Giambologna (1529-1608) made towards the end of his career for the most important rulers of his day, in which a number of his most senior assistants and important followers played a major role. As usual in Giambologna’s workshop, a great many variants of the model in statuette format were made over a prolonged period. The Amsterdam horse is in fact a variant, in mirror-image pose, of Giambologna’s equestrian statue of Cosimo I, which was made between 1587 and 1595.

When it was bought the Amsterdam horse was thought to be a work by an artist in the circle of Adriaen de Vries (1556-1626),³ but Larsson disputed this attribution,⁴ and Leeuwenberg subsequently catalogued the statuette as being from the Southern Netherlands.⁵ However there are no good grounds for this either. Details like the large ears and flaring nostrils, the bared teeth, the curled upper lip, the shod hooves, the long tail and the long, loose flowing mane are, on the other hand, typical of the horses from the stable of Giambologna’s successor Pietro Tacca (1577-1640).⁶ An ungilded variant of the Amsterdam horse, possibly based on the same model, was with the dealer Daniel Katz in 2000 and sold two years later.⁷ A pair of bronze horses ostensibly derived from the same model was sold in 2014 in New York.⁸

Pietro Tacca was closely involved in the making of Giambologna’s equestrian statues of Ferdinand I and Philip III dating from the early part of the seventeenth century, in which the horses are very like the Amsterdam statuette; the model for Ferdinand’s statue was probably supplied by Antonio Susini (active 1578-d. 1624). Tacca extended his experience of the genre in a number of small bronzes, including this one, giving the horses a less stiff, livelier pose. In 1619, with a statuette of Carlo Emmanuel on a rearing horse, and later with the monument for Philip IV, Pietro tackled the challenge that had been set by Leonardo – namely to achieve a rearing equestrian statue. This motif of rearing horses was then picked up and further elaborated in a group of pairs of horses that for a long time were attributed to Pietro Tacca,⁹ but now appear to be by his son and successor Ferdinando.¹⁰ Thus the fascinating subject of the horse, the most popular theme in sculpture apart from human beings, runs like a leitmotiv through the careers of Giambologna and his followers.

The success of little equestrian statues like this in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is connected with the royal status of thoroughbred horses at this time. Owning a stud was comparable to owning a Kunst- or Wunderkammer. Horses were collected and exchanged as diplomatic gifts. Emperor Rudolf II even had his collection of Spanish horses housed in newly built stables in the wing of the palace in Prague where the art collections were displayed.¹¹ The popularity of equestrian statuettes among art collectors can also be gauged by the countless depictions of bronze horses in paintings of art cabinets.¹² A horse with a similar full, round rump, slender legs with small hoofs and a long mane and tail is shown in a drawing by the Flemish artist Stradanus (born Jan van der Straet, 1523-1605).¹³ Stradanus made many drawings of the purebred horses in the Medici stables (cf. RP-T-1936-38), which were later published as prints. It is quite conceivable that Tacca was familiar with such drawings or prints by this artist, who had worked for his patrons, the Medici, only a generation before.

Monique Verber, 2005 (updated by Bieke van der Mark in 2024)
This entry was originally published in F. Scholten, M. Verber et al., From Vulcan’s Forge: Bronzes from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 1450-1800, exh. cat. London (Daniel Katz Ltd.)/Vienna (Liechtenstein Museum) 2005-06, no. 23